METRO VANCOUVER -- After months of well-publicized threats to his life, gangster Sukh Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel were shot to death in a brazen targeted execution at a busy Burnaby hotel Monday morning.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team confirmed Tuesday that it was Dhak and his constant companion Mantel who were slain in front of shocked workers at the Executive Hotel on the Lougheed Highway about 11:30 a.m.

Sgt. Jennifer Pound of IHIT said police are continuing their investigation and the crime scene remains cordoned off.

Both men were well-known to police and those involved in the B.C. gang scene.

Dhak, 28, is currently on trial in B.C. Supreme Court for conspiracy and trafficking ecstasy back in 2008. The trial had been adjourned Friday until this morning.

Mantel, 30, was due in Surrey Provincial Court in January for charges of dangerous driving and obstructing a police officer laid in 2010 after an encounter with the Gang Task Force.

The burly, tattooed Mantel would often escort the diminutive Dhak through the Vancouver Law Courts, walking with him from the parking lot to the sixth floor where Dhak’s trial was held.

When the pair arrived at the security gate with an X-ray machine and metal detector, Dhak would go through, while Mantel would leave before he could be screened.

Police have warned repeatedly over the last year that Dhak and his associates could be targeted by rivals after a series of tit-for-tat retaliations that began when Dhak’s brother Gurmit was gunned down outside Burnaby’s Metrotown Mall in October 2010 in another brazen daylight execution.

The violence against Dhak and associates in the Duhre crime group escalated after the August 2011 murder of Red Scorpion gangster Jon Bacon and wounding of Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach.

In fact, Duhre gang leader Sandip Duhre was shot to death in a similar fashion in front of guests and hotel staff in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre on Jan. 16, 2012.

The trail of violence led all the way to Mexico where Dhak associate Tom Gisby was gunned down last April. Both Dhak and Mantel attended Gisby’s south Surrey funeral two weeks later.

Police sources say gang tensions are escalating again after a period of relative calm across the Lower Mainland.

And they believe the latest deadly shooting will spur on more violence.

Sgt. Pound said there were a few people around the hotel at the time, but no one else was injured or killed.

“I’m always amazed there aren’t more casualties in a shooting like this,” she said.

When police arrived at the hotel Monday, one of the victims was lying just outside the building where shattered glass littered the pavement. The body of the second victim straddled the doorway of the large centre.

It is not known whether the shots were fired from within the hotel or outside, said Pound, but police believe the two men were targeted. Two unidentified blond women, one covering her face, were escorted out of the hotel and past reporters by police.

Witnesses say they heard several gunshots.

Chris Hashimoto was just getting out of bed in his condo behind the hotel, on Halifax Street, when the shots were fired. At first, he mistook the noise for nearby construction.

“It sounded like heavy machinery the first couple of times, and after the few shots, the rapid succession, I thought no — that sounded like gunfire,” Hashimoto said from his balcony overlooking the scene.

The hotel, on Lougheed Highway between Gilmore and Madison, is situated near a cluster of strip malls with popular restaurants like the Cactus Club and Boston Pizza and big box stores like Staples.

At a neighbouring Napa Auto Parts store, business carried on as usual.

Dan Bulmer was just leaving the parking lot for a trip to the North Shore when he heard what he thought was a jackhammer. He only found out about the shooting when he returned an hour later. One of his colleagues reportedly gave CPR to one of the victims.

A continuing education centre just down the hill from the hotel’s main entrance also remained open Monday, although one teacher said she immediately locked her door after students told her they heard the shots.

Student David Wang said he only heard about the shooting after he tried to cross the police tape on his way to the school Monday afternoon.

“It scares me,” he said. “Who knows where the shots will go?”

By early afternoon, police had roped off the hotel and were scouring the grounds and around parked cars.

The back door of the hotel was unlocked but the stairs to the lobby were blocked by yellow police tape.

Several chairs and a camera could be seen at the bottom of the stairs.

Both Dhak and Mantel are believed to have been living in Surrey. Police have not said why they were in Burnaby or whether they were meeting someone at the hotel.

The Sun has learned that some longtime associates of Dhak may have recently abandoned his crew in order to have a truce with rivals.

Const. Doug Spencer, a gang specialist who works with the Odd Squad, knew Dhak and his older brother for years, even getting Gurmit to videotape a haunting message before his death about the risks of gang violence.

“The message to kids here is that now we have two brothers gone,” Spencer, who is with Transit Police, said Monday.

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Gangster Sukh Dhak and his bodyguard shot to death in Burnaby hotel, police confirm (with video)

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